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Our wedding invitations were a project-and-a-half! There were many trials and errors but I am absolutely in love with the final product!

Initially I had it in mind that I would make every part myself, but upon trialing a few ideas I realized it was both more time and cost effective to purchase the pre-made “shell” of my invitations through Cards and Pockets. Going this route also allowed me to purchase matching envelopes, also for a competitive price to anything I would have purchased from a craft store. I ordered several samples before settling on ‘Sand’ colour for my invitations.

I printed all of the documents for the middle and side pocket on white cardstock paper (templates below).

I cut all of the information using my paper trimmer which is such a time saver, especially compared to using regular scissors!

I cut the centre information a few centimetres smaller and a piece of navy blue cardstock a few centimetres bigger, allowing for it to show from behind for the middle fold. I attached these pieces together using double-sided-tape and then double-sided-taped that to the “shell.”

For each response card we changed the names to who we were sending the invitation to. We found by being specific, it avoided people being confused about whether they could bring a date, their children etc. which I heard frequently causes guests confusion.

We tucked the different information into the right pocket and closed the invitations.

For the front of the cards we punched out two different squares using Fiskars punches (purchased from Jo-ann Craft Store).

Using Fiskars corner punchers I added detail to the white square.

Using double-sided-tape I attached the white card to the blue card.

I added an embossed stamp to the front using a stamp I custom ordered here. At only $10, it was well worth ordering.

For most people we included a funnier Response card but were concerned it may be confusing for some of our older guests or guests that don’t speak great english, so did a more basic one for some people.

In our response cards we also asked people to request a song that would get them dancing. We compiled a list in advance for our DJ so no requests were made the evening of the wedding (sometimes people request songs that are not actually danceable and the DJ feels pressured to play it. If we felt it wasn’t a danceable song, we played it earlier in the evening during dinner, or while people were visiting).

I have always loved how wax seals look and wanted to include them on my invitations (see how I made my invitations here). I had a look online and found these great wax sealing sticks that fit into a hot glue gun. I ordered them and am so glad I did! Traditionally for wax seals, you melt wax over paper with a flame, allowing it to drip onto the page. By using these sticks I could heat just enough wax in the glue gun and it was much easier to control the amount of wax coming out with the trigger.

I love bunting banners and wanted to use them for our wedding wherever I could! I first made one for our Save the Date and it was so easy I just had to keep going!

Although i love the look of burlap, I just find it such a pain to work with! it’s difficult to cut, fussy to sew etc. I was brainstorming and realised that kraft paper would look just as good and be SO MUCH EASIER to work with! As you may have seen in other posts, I have used a lot of cardstock kraft paper (purchased from Michaels) for many projects.

For the larger bunting banners (Our engagement photo/wedding date one as well as our ‘Just Married’ sign) I used an entire sheet of cardstock. For the smaller banners (‘Mad Libs’ and ‘Cards’), I printed two letters per sheet and cut the sheet in half to create two smaller rectangles with the letters.

Using acrylic paint (purchased from the dollar store), I painted the letters and allowed them to dry.

Once dry, find the middle of the bottom of the sheet i.e. under the letter. Cut from the top left corner, down to the middle point on an angle, then from the top right corner down to the middle point, eventually resulting in a triangle.

Once you have all of your letters cut into triangles, prepare your ribbon, cutting it to the right length for your banner.

Lay the ribbon down and on the back of it, put a strip of double sided tape.

Stick the top (wider part) of the triangle to the ribbon. I liked the look of the ribbon so put mine at the front of the sign so you would see it above the letters.

And that’s it! You do this to each of the triangles in order until you have attached all of them to the ribbon.

Just a note: Upon further thought, I remembered that I actually reinforced the ‘Just Married’ banner we put on the vehicle as I was concerned about it holding up to the wind. Behind each triangle I duck taped the top of the ribbon and the top of the cardstock just as added reinforcement. It worked well and still looked new at the end of a long day of driving around!

Just Married Sign- Letters– I changed the letter after printing each one. Right click on the letter, select ‘edit text’ and change it to the next letter you need to print. You can also change it to numbers this way if you want to do a date banner.

My amazing maid-of-honour came up with this fabulous idea and I absolutely love it! She brought a simple picture frame with white matting to my bachelorette party. While all the girls’ were getting ready we put on our brightest lipstick and kissed the white matte! Each girl left me a special message with their “kisses.” Following the bachelorette party I was able to put my favourite picture from that weekend in the frame as an amazing keepsake of a special time in my life.

Like this:

Due to rules at our reception hall, we had to use plastic cups behind the bar. I had reservations about how they would look, but beyond that, the amount of waste there would be from 150 guests using plastic cups. I mentioned this to a friend of ours who is handy on the computer and created this sign for me to print and put at the bar. I love it! Cute and funny.

I printed it out on white cardstock paper and framed it. It was placed by the bar and looked great!

Like this:

I wanted to make sure that at any point in the wedding reception there was ample entertainment to keep our guests busy. I saw this idea and fell in love! I continued to look and found a few other kinds for purchase on etsy and created two hybrids of the questions I liked best.

Print on cardstock paper. There are two per page. I used a paper trimmer to cut the sheets in half (provides a more smooth cut than using scissors).

I had a vintage suitcase above the basket of cards to put the finished ones in. The table ended up looking really cute.

Throughout my sister-in-laws wedding, everyone kept running to her with issues. It drove me nuts, she was the bride after all! I swore I would do whatever I could to avoid that at my own wedding. After looking on pinterest at different ideas I fell in love with the idea of giving a phone list to all family members that says, “Lost? Confused? Can’t find your pants? Please call anyone but the bride or groom!” that I saw here.

I created a list including contact information for our wedding planner, maid of honour and best man. I also included important information regarding where close family needed to be at certain times. It proved very helpful and was so quick to print and hand out. We handed ours out at the rehearsal dinner the night before our wedding.

I printed them on kraft cardstock paper purchased from Michaels. When printing the document, select to print double sided. Once printed, I cut them in half and trimmed a bit of paper off the edges using a paper trimmer (much easier than using scissors!)

We had quite a few kids attend our wedding so wanted to be sure that they were well entertained during the quiet (i.e. boring for the kids) times of our reception. One of my bridesmaids had made colouring books for kids at her wedding and I thought it was such a fabulous idea!

Using her template, one I found here, and some activities I created on my own, I put together a great mix of entertainment for the kids at the wedding.

It worked well and they were all nice and preoccupied! I put them at each of their place settings with a pack of crayons. I also saw the idea of putting a small snack with it, but because we had appetizers out immediately upon guests arriving, I didn’t worry too much about that.

Print onto card stock paper. Fold in half down the middle. Punch two holes on each page along the spine at the same spot. Tie a ribbon through and into a bow to hold the spine together.

We did a $2 bar for our wedding reception but still wanted to provide people with a free drink. I decided rather than using the rolls of tickets you can get from most dollar stores (granted, would have been easier!) I wanted to make my own, something with a little more personality. I found a few ideas on etsy like this and this but I wanted to try making something myself.

Unfortunately I had to use a few different programs so you can’t change the wording on it so the document (link is below) has the same thing on both sides “REDEEM FOR ONE STIFF DRINK.” They still look super cute though and would be a good quick project to add to your wedding reception.